Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

In the interest of keeping fans unspoiled for the movie please do not post any spoilers in comments until December 18.

As of now, I am leaning against doing an open thread as I’ve done before. Why? I think it’s becoming too contentious and as it is, I’m strongly considering shutting down comments for a while as of Jan. 1.

Come to think of it, don’t hijack other posts to rant on what you think either.

As you may or may not have noticed, I haven’t been posting as much on SWPAS lately. This is for many reasons. Six or seven years ago, there was stuff going on all of the time largely due to Clone Wars. Today it’s a little light in the prequels news department; some days there really isn’t much going on and I don’t feel like spending lots of time on minutia. The good news is there are many more voices out there but I don’t have time to personally listen to every podcast or watch every video or post about every meme and fan art piece. I’m not going to promote all of them either without knowing anything about them.

Other reasons include being busy, being unmotivated (there are several reasons for that too), and having a lot of problems with the state of fandom today. I’ve never had an easy relationship with “fandom,” and I’m just beginning to understand why. Furthermore, interacting with other SW fans on social media has become precarious within the past couple of years as people are mobbing up on other fans for reasons that have little or nothing to do with Star Wars at all. Who wants to do or say anything in this kind of environment?

In short, I’m going to contemplate SWPAS’s future; right now that doesn’t mean shutting down but changing focus. For now it’ll chug along as it has been until I figure out exactly what the new focus should be.

Not that I think much of Buzzfeed or the dim bulbs who hang around there, but somebody posted a whole bunch of photos from the spring and summer of 1999 depicting the mania surrounding TPM’s release. Of course the comments are full of bashers, so feel free to add balance to the Force.

By the way, I was acquainted with a number of people who were involved with the Uptown Theater line up.

Anakin probably wants to crawl into a hole in the ground and never come out. So much for proving his maturity. Looks like he has always been and always will be a child in Padmé’s eyes. No wonder he’s so insistent afterwards on pledging to track down the assassin, against all his master’s disapproval — he’s desperate to win Padmé’s favor to make up for such a wrong-footed introduction. Alas, Obi-Wan’s chastisement only humiliates him further.

By the way, there is so much secondhand embarrassment in this scene, illustrated by way of cleverly-timed cuts to the onlookers’ faces. Typho, Dormé, Obi-Wan, even Jar Jar — they all notice it, and there is much hiding of smiles and darting of eyes. I love how editing can tell a story without a word of dialogue.

Vulture polled 40 screenwriters on the 100 best screenwriters of all time. George Lucas ranked #16:

In marrying the aesthetics of the pulp serials of his youth to formal lessons gleaned from Joseph Campbell, he quite literally created the template for 40-plus years of blockbusters. But his legacy isn’t limited to space operas. “Yes, the man created Star Wars, but want to see another side of his skills? Check out American Graffiti and weep because you’ll never be as talented as he is,” says Andrea Berloff.

Vanity Fair posted on its web site how various films have influenced fashion. Along with TFA is a nod to the prequels, especially Padmé Amidala’s influence on the runways of our galaxy:

Asian themes and dip-dyed fabrics were big on the runway and in street style in the early 2000s, and headdresses continued to appear on runways even as Amidala’s costumes became more toned-down in the sequels. Amidala–esque styles walked down the 1999 fall couture show for Dior, as well as the 1999 spring Comme des Garcons ready-to-wear show.”

Matril’s look at AOTC’s memorable lines continues with another line early in the film:

Mace isn’t lying or hiding his true nature. Jedi really are peacekeepers; that is the foundation of their creed. Remember Yoda’s lesson to Luke in Episode V? “A Jedi uses his powers for knowledge and defense. Never for attack.” So when Mace and Yoda and all the other Jedi take on the role of soldiers, they are essentially betraying the essence of who the Jedi are. Their downfall is practically inevitable after that.

Cryogenic linked in the comments of the previous post to this fascinating look at the first 90 seconds of AOTC. It was posted 10 years ago and I guess he wasn’t too crazy about TPM but it still is worth a read:

My minute and a half is about up now, but the rest of the scene continues the theme of deception and duplicity. It also caps the decoy storyline that was central to The Phantom Menace. Next to its visual imagination, the iconic success of Star Wars rests on its rigorous but inventive structuring: Lucas often begins and ends familiar stories in unpredictable ways. The belated death of Padme’s double exemplifies this Star Wars principle. For instance, Revenge of the Sith begins with what could have been the climax of Clones--much like the opening forty minutes of Return of the Jedi could have provided a more upbeat ending to The Empire Strikes Back. Each act of the two halves (which wrap around like Moebius strips) corresponds to its counterpart: Menace/Hope, Attack/Strikes Back, Revenge/Return.

Here’s the first installment of Matril’s look at the significant lines of AOTC:

Now, on its own this line carries a sort of dark humor. We all know that a character should never, ever say there was no danger after all, because that’s the surest way to bring calamity upon your head. Dramatic irony being what it is, the worst possible thing is always going to happen right after you let your guard down. So, we’re all kind of groaning as Captain Typho says it.

But I think the line goes deeper. It’s an indication of where this movie is going to take us. Don’t get comfortable. Don’t assume you’ve figured it all out, because just when you think you have, you’re going to have the rug pulled out from under you. This film, particularly Obi-Wan’s storyline, is going to take us through reveal after reversal after reveal. From Zam to Jango to Kamino to the first mention of “Tyrannus” to Geonosis to Dooku to the Separatists…and then, after you might think everything’s finally explained, we end up going back to Geonosis with Dooku — who turns out to be Tyrannus — who was working for Darth Sidious all along.